


To Have a Choice

by justafriendlybagel



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Episode: s07e11 Shattered, Episode: s07e12 Victory and Death, F/M, Order 66, Romance, rexsoka
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-04
Updated: 2020-11-18
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:02:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24007054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justafriendlybagel/pseuds/justafriendlybagel
Summary: “What do you want to do after the war, Rex?”He didn’t have an answer for her then, not a real one. He must have mumbled something about the Senate and becoming a part of a peacekeeping force before calling it a night. A part of him had been frustrated with her for asking. Another had been amazed that she had wanted to know what he would choose, if he could.
Relationships: CT-7567 | Rex/Ahsoka Tano
Comments: 35
Kudos: 224





	1. Rex

Rex wasn’t in the habit of thinking about the future. When he was a cadet, he didn’t need to. He knew what it would be, he was a clone. They all knew what their future was. Fight for the Republic. Die for the Republic. It was the reason for their existence, he didn’t need to plan for anything else. Once, Cody had asked a Kaminoan about surrender, about after. The long-neck just scoffed, and said:

“Once you have achieved victory for the Republic, you’ll have completed your purpose. What happens to you then will be up to the Senate, or perhaps the Chancellor.”

Cody and Rex had just nodded and continued their training assignment, accepting the fact written in their DNA; their paths had been laid out, predetermined by a voice more powerful than theirs.

When the war started, the next moment, the next battle, the next meeting was the farthest he let himself think into his future. Keeping himself, his vod, and his reckless jedi General Skywalker alive and ahead of the Separatists was all he let himself focus on.

And then Ahsoka came.

Rex didn’t think he had ever met a person with more optimism and fight in her than Ahsoka. She exploded into his life with clever quips and confident smiles, and a reckless drive to prove herself to the master that didn’t choose her, and to the council that saw fit to send her to him. She pushed herself hard in those early days, and when Rex offered to teach her what hand to hand combat he knew, she jumped at the chance.

It was while trading sips from a water bottle after a sparring session (she won but he swore she used the force to do it) that she asked him the question he didn’t really want to ask himself. She had been excitedly rambling about becoming a knight someday, about how she wanted to train her future padawans, about the end of the war.

“What do you want to do after the war, Rex?”

He didn’t have an answer for her then, not a real one. He must have mumbled something about the Senate and becoming a part of a peacekeeping force before calling it a night. A part of him had been frustrated with her for asking. Another had been amazed that she had wanted to know what he would choose, if he could.

Meeting Cut Lawquane had shaken him. He had been so angry to meet the deserter, someone who would abandon their vod, and the purpose that they had been created for. But in the end, he had fought alongside him, and could not begrudge the man for the life he had made for himself. And when he was debriefed after Saleucami, he made the choice to keep his brother’s secret.

More missions, more battles, more sparring sessions and long talks over meals in the mess hall with Ahsoka passed, and with the passing of time came a change in the way he saw himself. Once, when the 501st was assigned back to Coruscant and General Skywalker had taken him on a “protection” mission with Senator Amidala, she had pulled him aside.

“Captain Rex, I was hoping to get your insight on a piece of legislation I’m working on,” she said. “Hopefully, the end of the war is in sight, and I want to be ready for that. I want the Republic to be able to provide for the welfare of the clones, and we’ll need to have some legislation already prepared to protect your rights when the time comes. Senator Organa and I were hoping to hear from you and some other clones before we start drafting something.”  


In that moment, Rex could understand exactly why Skywalker would risk so much to be with her. He told her what he could, and left with a sense of hope that he had never really let himself have before.

He tells all this to Ahsoka later, after she had come back from an easy-mission-turned-complicated to protect a group of younglings. When she had shown up in the barracks that afternoon he had thought that she might want to spar and get some of her frustration out, but instead she drags him to some greasy diner General Kenobi had taken her to ages ago, back when he had time for things like that. He wondered to himself if the younglings had made her nostalgic for those early days. They stuff their faces while she tells him crazy stories about pirates and circus performances.

She asks him the question again, about after the war, as they slowly walked back to the barracks. He tells her about his conversation with Padme, and about what the Kaminoan had told him so many years ago. He tells her about his hope for himself and for his brothers, that they would be free to make their own lives after the war, whether that be staying in the GAR or going off on paths currently shut off to clones. And then he tells her about what he hopes for himself, and about a clone and his family living on Saleucami. He wants to tell her how beautiful she looks in the light of the sunset, but she beats him to it. It’s then that they choose each other, and she gives him a kiss that makes him feel like freedom was found in her arms.

Barely a few weeks of stolen kisses had passed before he’s running with General Skywalker through Coruscant’s tunnel system, trying to bring Ahsoka in for a crime she didn’t commit. Even though he is loyal to the Republic and to the Jedi, when he had her in the sights of his stun blaster, he makes the choice not to fire, and she escapes into the night.

Afterwards, when the farce of a trial was done, and Ahsoka’s choice was made, she comes again to the barracks, and they go back to that greasy diner. She doesn’t ask him to desert; she knows what the Republic, the GAR, and his brothers mean to him, and he appreciates that. Instead, they build a dream of a time after the war, where she is free of the Jedi code, he can become a citizen, and they can come together and build a life. They part ways that night with a gentle kiss, and a promise to stay in touch.

The following months were the toughest of his life to that point. As the war escalated, it became harder and harder to keep everyone safe. When Tup and Fives lost their minds and their lives to a malfunctioning inhibitor chip, Rex didn’t know what to believe. He was afraid of something he didn’t understand, something big. Whatever it was that Fives was trying to tell him at the end didn’t make sense, but he makes the choice to report on those fears, instead of just letting what the Kaminoans and the Senate say be the only version of the story.

His men were slipping away from him, General Skywalker included. Skywalker was becoming erratic, more so than usual. It was hard to complain though, when he was still leading his men to victory. Skywalker asks him to cover for him when he talks with Padme, and Rex agrees. He understands it even more now, but he can’t bring himself to ask for the same in return, not when he’s such a bad liar. Not when discovery for the Jedi means possibly leaving the order, but discovery for a clone means reconditioning. Better to keep it a secret from everyone.

Contact from Ahsoka is few and far between. He’s helping lead the sieges in the Outer Rim, and she’s traveling the galaxy trying to find something for herself, and for him. The moments they do have together are precious, even when the other person is a hologram from a communicator or a line of text on a data screen. In the back of his head, he knows that some things are confidential, and she’s really not a Jedi any longer, but he can’t keep anything from her and doesn’t want to. She’s the first to hear about his belief that Echo is still alive, and the one Rex lets himself cry in front of after he has finally brought Echo home and his brother chooses to leave him again. He can’t fault Echo his choice, not when clones have so few.

She tells him about two sisters from the lower levels of Coruscant, and he can’t believe his ears when she tells him about an upcoming spice run she’s going to do with them.

“They’re in over their heads, Rex. I have to keep them safe, if I can.”

He doesn’t ask who’s keeping her safe. He wishes it were him.

He doesn’t hear from her again for a long time, and if it weren’t for the fact she was a Jedi, he would have driven himself insane with worry. Instead, he focuses on the people in front of him. There’s so few of the old guard now; these shinies that Kamino keeps sending out are each younger and more unprepared than the last, but they’re still his brothers, and it’s his duty as their captain to keep them safe.

There’s a cloud hanging over General Skywalker these days, but there’s nothing Rex can do about it. He knows Skywalker is missing Ahsoka as much as he is. He’s tempted to let him in on her communications code, he thinks it would help him, but Ahsoka told him she needed her space from the Jedi, and he respects that.

That’s why it’s such a surprise when they’re back in the temple on Coruscant, and she’s there. Her hologram flickers between Jedi and clones in the dim light of the strategy rooms, but he can still pick out the grief in her eyes.

When General Skywalker offers him the chance to fight with her again, he agrees without a second thought, and most of the 501st follows him. He’s not the only clone happy to have her back, several members of the 501st start re-painting their helmets right away. Rex chooses not to. He’s proud of his jaig eyes, and doesn’t need a coat of paint to keep her close, not when he has her promises in his heart.

When she comes in and sees them all, he feels like he could explode from happiness right then and there. It’s the first time he’s seen her months. He wants to sweep her into his arms, but he holds himself back. He can’t do what he wants when she’s the focus of everyone in the hangar. On the ship he keeps a professional distance, until she grabs him by his pauldrons and they duck into a supply closet together. They kiss and laugh and enjoy each other’s presence like he imagines two teenagers would, if they had ever had the chance to be the teenagers that actually are.

Once they reach Mandalore, they fall back into the rhythm of fighting together so easily it’s almost like breathing. He doesn’t hesitate to follow her lead, and they’re back throwing quips and offering support like they had never been apart. There might have been a time once where he would have been scared for her to fight someone like Maul, but he knows exactly what warrior she’s become, and trusts her to lead the way without a second thought. He can see her get the upper hand from his place on the ground, and is ready for her with shuttles and a capture device at the end.

Maul is in custody, Dooku dead, and Grievous is in General Kenobi’s sights on Utapau. The end of the war was so close, Rex could almost taste it. The war that created the clones for death would finally release them so they could have a chance to live a life. Ahsoka and he stood at the helm, and he felt his heart leap as the ship leapt into hyperspace. He could see his future so clearly in the woman beside him, even as they quietly discussed the past. The war had been long, hard, and painful, but some good had come out of it. Rex and his brothers could have a life now. He and Ahsoka could have a life.

He has a spring in his step as he heads to the comm station. More good news, he hopes.

As soon as the hologram opens Rex knows he’s wrong. The figure is hunched and decrepit, his face covered in a black hood, but Rex can still see the sick smile as the Sith utters:

“Commander Rex, execute Order 66.”

It’s all Rex can do to stand there, shaking. He knows what this is, knows this is why they killed Fives. Fighting it is like fighting his very nature, like trying to breathe underwater. He can’t hold his breath very long. But he has too. He has to give her a chance. He barks something about doing it himself to the other clones in the room, and slowly lifts his blasters towards his Ahsoka.

He’s shaking harder now. The effort to keep from pulling the trigger and to choke out something that must be unintelligible to her sends tears streaming down his face. 

“Find him. Find him! Fives! Find him!”

If he doesn’t take a breath he’s going to drown, and against his will he inhales.  


His blasters fire, and fear and trembling is replaced with steadfast determination.  


He doesn’t have a choice.

He never did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! In honor of Star Wars day, and the INCREDIBLE Clone Wars show coming to an end, I have decided to write and post my very first fan-fiction EVER. I've been a long time lurker (years and years), but writing this was really fun, so who knows, you might see more from me :) I'm not quite sure how to work AO3 effectively yet, sorry if the formatting is weird. I'm thinking of adding another chapter about what happens next from Ahsoka's perspective. I hope you liked it so far!


	2. Ahsoka

Good Jedi don’t make decisions from strong emotion. They reject attachments, and act in every situation without fear for their own lives, and those lives close to them. There is no emotion, there is peace. There is no death, there is the force.This allows them to fully dedicate themselves to serving the will of the force.

Ahsoka Tano is no longer a good Jedi. Fear and attachment press on her mind like a weight tied to her neck as she takes in what’s happening: The clones around her place their hands on their blasters, and her Rex takes aim at her chest. She forces herself to silence the cries of agony she hears in the force, because something tells her that this next moment will be the difference between living, and her cries joining the rest.

Her love is shaking, and his eyes are wild. There’s a tear streaming down his cheek, and when he begins to speak, she has a spike of fear that this might be the last thing he ever says to her.

“Find him. Find him! Fives! Find him!”

Before she can process his meaning his blasters fire and she’s taken out her sabers to deflect his shots into the ceiling. She leaps over him onto the comm station, and holds back a cringe when her movement pushes his head into the board with a crack. Her mind is spinning as more clones rush in and take aim, but she doesn’t let it for long. Her sabers deflect the blasts into the ceiling for her escape, carefully avoiding each brother surrounding her. She may no longer be a Jedi, but the training will never leave her. She’s meters away in the vents before they’re even aware she’s gone.

Instinct is what keeps her moving while her thoughts race. What just happened? What had made the clones decide she was their enemy? What had Rex been fighting inside before he fired at her? Why find Fives? She feels like she’s trapped in a nightmare she’s lived before: one where a parasite takes over her friend’s mind, and she’s all alone. The solution won’t be as simple as freezing out the ship, but there has to be one, she needs for there to be one. Before she can take the time to find it, she needs a distraction. The idea leaves a bad taste in her mouth, but it’s the only option she has. Ahsoka needs to save Rex, and she doesn’t have the time or luxury of debating ethics like Master Obi Wan would.

Maul is seconds away from execution when Ahsoka finds him, and she has to save his life. He hisses like a snake about a grand plan. His master’s genius, turning the Jedi’s trusted army against them. He can feel the waves of death in the force like she can, he tells her. Maul has the audacity to think she’s come to join him; he wants to lead the way as if he hasn’t been at her mercy since Mandalore. She quickly corrects him with her sabers held to his throat. She warns him not to let her regret this, and lets him slither away with a smug look on his face.

There’s only a few beings left on the ship she can trust. The droids are happy to see her, which is a relief. She’ll need them in what’s to come. Before she starts, she pauses to ask them if they want to help. Rex and his brothers are out there stripped of their agency, and she’d be damned before she starts taking it from someone else. The droids are efficient, and they make quick work of their research.

Ahsoka is horrified and astonished at what she finds. She knew Fives had died, and that it had happened shortly after she had left the order. The official story was that a Jedi had been murdered by a sick clone with a broken inhibitor chip, whose friend then removed his own chip, went insane and attacked the Chancellor. It’s hard to reconcile this with the Fives who was her friend, but the ship is full of friends turned unwilling enemies and she presses on with her research. Her heart bursts with pride when she sees Rex, but the report he gives is chilling. These weren’t simple inhibitor chips. This was mind control, designed to make sleeper agents out of the Jedi’s most trusted allies; designed to make droids out of men.

A true Jedi might place preserving this information above all else, see saving Rex as a dangerous attachment, and plan a quiet escape. Ahsoka knows from experience that the Jedi can often be dead wrong. Rex needs her, and she needs him too. She will never turn her back on him.

She clings to the fact that Fives was able to remove his chip and live. There’s a way to save Rex, and hopefully the rest of the clones too. The plan to get to Rex comes together quickly with the droids help. The hard part will be keeping her distance. She doesn’t want to give Rex the chance to even try something that would only hurt him later. A distraction is needed, and it’s a better one this time. She finishes her recording quickly, and she and the droids go to lay their trap.

The droids spring the trap and successfully cut off Rex from the rest of the clones. Ahsoka is back in the vents, out of sight but ready to drop down when she needs to. The sight of him shocks her, not because he is a different man than the one she loves, but because he is the same. She half expected the movements of a droid, but the chip can’t erase the way he stands, the dignity with which he holds himself, or the determination he has when facing an enemy. It’s the things she loves about him, twisted in all the wrong directions.

“Rex,” her recording plays, “I think I know what’s happening. I saw your report on Fives. It isn’t your fault, cyare, you were programmed. Your mind was altered to do this when you were very young. I can help you.”

“Where is she,” he demands, blaster raised to the astromech playing the recording.

Ahsoka knows her cue. She drops behind him and speaks up before he can hurt the droid.

“I’m right here.”

He’s distracted by her long enough for the droid to stun him, a little too strongly for her tastes. She catches him in her arms the best she can as he falls. On the ground she takes a moment just to hold him, eyes squeezed shut and arms tight around his chest.

“I’m not going to let you go,” she whispers.

Together she and the droids hurry him to the medical bay. The path is blocked for now, but it won’t be long before the clones break through. In the medical bay, she lays him on the exam table and gingerly takes off his helmet. Ahsoka lets her fingers trail across his jaw. This had better work, she thinks to herself. She can’t bear to think of what would happen if it doesn’t.

Clones start to bang on the door, and the first scan reads negative.

The droid at the door can barely hold back the attempts to break in, and the second scan reads negative.

They’re running out of time, but Ahsoka is not about to let Rex have blind brain surgery performed on him. They need to find that chip. She knows it's there, the force sings it to her, so she leans on love and the force and reaches out her hands to Rex’s dear face.

“I am one with the force, and the force is with me. I am one with the force, and the force is with me.”

She can see Rex’s signature in the force, golden and shining. At its center there’s something hidden, something black and bleeding. She sinks into the force deeper and tries to bring what’s hidden into focus. Unconsciously, Rex starts to chant along with her.

“I am one with the force and the force is with me. I am one with the force and the force is with me.”

The third scan is positive. They’ve found the chip.

The clones outside have found a way in.

Rex is positioned into surgery, and Ahsoka places herself at the end of the table between him and the door, sabers lit. Clones are firing at her in a flash. Instinct and the force guides her sabers to repel the blasts, but clones aren’t cheap battle droids. Their aim is true and relentless. She’s not sure how long she can keep this up while also trying not to hurt them. A bolt blasts one of her sabers out of her hand and she loses her rhythm for a few moments; a mistake that would mean death for someone fighting alone.

But force-blessedly, she isn’t alone. Blasts scream from behind her into the clones holding the door, letting it slam shut. Rex is awake, blasters in hand and a bandage just behind his right temple.

Ahsoka takes a moment just to soak him in. His eyes are wide, his hands are shaking, and his face is wrought with turmoil she’s never seen on him before. There’s a chill down her spine, that maybe, maybe the surgery didn’t work.

“Rex, are you- are you okay?”

There’s a shuddering exhale, and Rex lowers his blasters while his face relaxes.

“Yeah, I’m okay, cyare. I’m okay.”

Relief crashes down like a hammer. In seconds she has him wrapped in her arms and her face is pressed against his neck. He holds her against himself so tightly she can feel the rise and fall of his chest through his armor, and his breath against her montrals.

“I’m so sorry, I - I almost killed you” he murmurs. Ahsoka gently places a kiss on his jaw in response.

“I love you, Rex.”

“I love you too, ‘Soka.”

They both want nothing more than to stay locked in each other’s arms, but the universe isn’t in the habit of giving them what they want. The droid at the door beeps in panic. More clones are outside, and they’re breaking their way in by force. They have no choice but to tear themselves away from each other and prepare for battle. Ahsoka hesitates as she reaches for her sabers. The agony in the force keeps beating at her mind.

“Rex, how widespread is this?” she asks, but she already knows the answer before he can say it.

“Ahsoka,” he replies, “It’s all of us. The entire Grand Army of the Republic has been ordered to hunt down and destroy the Jedi Knights.”

She can feel the bright future they’d dreamed of slipping away with his words. All of their family, all his brothers and all the Jedi who raised her up, are being broken and twisted and murdered across the galaxy, and whatever world they knew is gone.

They might still get out of this with their lives, but there will be no victory today.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again! Hope you guys liked chapter 2! My original plan was to finish the story all the way to the end of Victory and Death with this chapter, but once Rex got his chip removed he just had too much to say, and then a bajillion more ideas attacked me out of nowhere, so who knows how long this is gonna be at this point.


	3. Together

Years of fighting through injuries and a fear for his and Ahsoka’s lives are the only things that push Rex into battle readiness. There’s a sharp pain behind his temples, and a pit in his chest that has no physical cause but aches worse than any blow. Ahsoka is still inches away from him. His hands itch to pull her back against him, hide away in the medbay and screw what happens next, but Rex is a good soldier, and now is not the time to lay down and choose not to fight. Now is the time to still his shaking hands, draw his blasters, and to listen to the plan that Ahsoka’s laying out. They only have seconds before the door breaks open. He can’t afford to distract her. With too much practice, he shoves his turmoil aside and conceals his face under the protection of his helmet. The Kaminoans never taught him what to do in the face of grief, but they did teach him what to do in the face of battle. He will fight his way out of here and keep Ahsoka safe, or die trying. That’s what a good soldier does.

When Ahsoka tells him to keep his blasters on stun, it rubs against that part of him he is currently doing his best to ignore. The best he can offer back is a curt response that barely lids his frustration as he switches the mode on his weapons.

The moment the door breaks apart Rex and Ahsoka leap into action. They are a good team, they always have been. Together they are both sword and shield; Ahsoka defends their position with her sabers while Rex acts as the offensive and stuns the attacking clones. The battle lasts only seconds. Rex sends thanks into the force that they have the droids with them to block off all the doors on their path and keep more clones from overwhelming them.

When Ahsoka tells him that the escape pods have all been destroyed it chafes against that emotion he’s trying to keep hidden. I did that, he thinks to himself. The memory of giving the order to disable the pods is barely clear under the haze of the activated chip, but it still leaves a sting. Rex nearly stumbles over an unconscious brother as he remembers something else.

“The boys are having a rough time of it,” he says, glancing at the clone at his feet. “Did you hear Maul also escaped?”

“He didn’t escape,” she responds, breathless from the fight. “I let him out.”

“What! Why?”

“I needed a diversion,” she yells back to him as she starts running down the corridor and beckons for him to follow. “Come on!”

He doesn’t chase immediately; he's too stunned by what she’s claimed to have done. She let Maul, one of the most dangerous and unhinged men in the galaxy, whom they had just fought tooth and nail to bring in, loose so she could rescue him? For a diversion?

“That’s one word for it” he mutters to himself.

Rex has to carefully step over his brothers on the floor to catch back up with Ahsoka. Ahsoka, who had been making impossible choices to save his life while he had been actively pursuing her death. Ahsoka, his cyare, who’s pushing them both forward through this hell scene they’re stuck in. Rex has to stop himself from thinking further, he’s getting too close to those emotions he’s pushed away in order to keep moving.

The run to the hangar bay is a short one, medbays are typically close by so that injured troops returning to the ship can be seen quickly. The ship starts to shake and fall out of hyperspace as they run. Rex can only guess why. Hopefully the chaos will make it easier for them to slip away. He and Ahsoka make quick work of the clone officers once they arrive.

“Hangar bay doors are sealed, everything’s locked down,” he observes. Just like he had ordered. “If they weren’t trying to kill us I’d be proud.” Ahsoka gives the droids a few orders and they get to work right away.

There’s damage to the hyperdrive, and it's catastrophic. The ship is dead in the air, and already caught in the gravity of a small moon. If they don’t get out of there on one of the remaining intact shuttles, they won’t be getting out at all. They can see one docked about a hundred meters away. Between them and it, there’s a company of men with blasters at the ready.

“They were waiting for us.” Rex has a pang of guilt looking at them. These men are obeying the orders he had made. Jesse’s leading them. Rex had always figured Jesse would be next in line for command if something happened to him.

It’s too much, looking at them. His chest tightens and panic creeps up his neck and Rex has to remind himself to breathe. Ahsoka looks impossibly calm next to him. Beautiful, kind, fierce and powerful Ahsoka, who chose him out of millions, who asked for what he had to say and listened to his answer, whom he actually believed when she told him he was worth something. He needs her. The galaxy needs her. He has to get her through this. She needs a soldier right now, But how far can you push a soldier before even he breaks?

“So what do we do, fight our way to the shuttle?” His voice has an edge that he can’t keep out of it anymore.

“There are too many,” she turns to face him. “Besides, I don’t want to hurt them.”

Of course she’d still be good, still be selfless and value these clones mass produced to kill her. It’s terrifying and devastating and infuriating all at once.

“I hate to tell you this, but they don’t care! Those soldiers, my brothers, are willing to die, to take you and me along with them!” His voice is rough and he doesn’t even try to keep the anger out of it anymore, because he knows this. He knows it because he was just like them only minutes ago. He was going to kill her, and had sabotaged whatever chances of escape his men had to do it. He had failed her, nevermind that he had fought it for a few seconds. He should have fought harder. He’s spiraling, panicking like a shiny after their first battle. Hot tears roll down his cheeks under the concealment of his helmet. He can’t even bring himself to look at Ahsoka, he’s so ashamed.

Gentle hands reach up and ease his helmet off. Her thumb brushes across the tears on his cheek while she softly guides him to look back at her. Whatever meager control Rex had left starts to crumble at the sight of her looking up at him. He had always been able to read Ahsoka like she was his favorite holonovel, and now, looking into her eyes, he sees her love, and he sees her pain, confused and raw like his own. And behind the love and the pain, shining beneath the tears that start to fall down her cheeks, is the trust that she somehow still has in him. Her hands move to his shoulders to pull him into an embrace. Something in Rex is released. She brings their foreheads together, and he clings to her like a lifeline, one arm gripping her shoulder, and the other at the back of her head pressing them closer together.

“This is not your fault, Rex,” she breathes against him. “It’s not their fault either.”

Her hands move from his shoulders to his face. He can feel the familiar presence of her force signature press on his mind. Rex lets out a shuddering sigh as he lets her guide him into a meditation. They stayed locked in their embrace and slowly matched their breathing to each other’s, in and out. A lightness fell over him like a blanket around his shoulders. Ahsoka had taught him how to do this with her after Umbara, when the grief had felt too much to bear. He could understand why the Jedi would rely on meditation so much. It was grounding. When his breathing finally steadies on its own, and the last of his tears starts to dry on his cheeks, Ahsoka ends their meditation with a slow kiss. Breaking apart is agony, but there is still a squadron of men waiting to take them down just outside the door.

“Those men may be willing to die, but I am not the one who is going to kill them.” She’s deadly serious, and he’s reminded of exactly why he fell in love with her in the first place.

“So we’re just going to surrender? Admit defeat?” he asks, and he would do it. He would follow her anywhere.

“No.” She turns back to the window and studies the men waiting for them. “I have an idea.” He must have looked incredulous because she quickly adds “Don’t worry - it’s a good one. I think.”

He could almost laugh at that, because of course she never fails to be incredible. It’s the Jedi in her, always finding another way. Her plan is a long shot, but he knows listening to her, that they can get through this, and they will. Together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter three! This one gets pretty hard on Rex, I can imagine that Rex struggles, as do most clones, with his self worth, and the events of order 66 would put whatever progressed he’d made into the toilet. Yeah sorry guys. I’ll write happy stuff eventually!!! Also, is Rex secretly force sensitive? If he is he doesn't know it.  
> I got inspiration for Rex and Ahsoka crying together from the amazing fanart of @lornaka on tumblr. Not sure how to link the artwork though.  
> Up next is another chapter from Ahsoka's perspective, and it will be the one that finishes this story. I have lots of fun things planned next! Some will take place in this continuity that I'm writing here, and some are just some goofy ideas I had. I need to write something fluffy after this.


	4. Golden

The cool durasteel of Rex’s blaster chills the back of her montral as they make their way into the hangar. It's the third time today she’s had his blasters aimed at her. It had taken some convincing to get him to agree to it, more to get him to hold her lightsabers, and even more to make him keep the safety off so he could still fire as soon as he needed to. She felt slightly bad for asking him to do it, but it was the only way she could see them getting into that hangar without it immediately turning into a firefight. If it could buy the droids enough time to do their part, it would be worth it.

Every last clone in the hangar snaps into a ready position, blasters drawn, as soon as they come in sight, prompting Rex to call out, lest the situation get away from them immediately and they lose whatever advantage of time they have.

“Hold your fire!” His natural authority gives all the clones pause, except Jesse, who’s always been one of the best. “I said hold your fire, Jesse! I have the situation under control.”

“You have your orders, sir.” Jesse’s voice is hard. “Now execute it, or I will.”

“The order was to execute the Jedi for treason against the Republic.” Rex responds. Ahsoka had planned this one with him on their way into the hangar. He steps in front of her as he talks, putting himself between her and the soldiers. “The problem is, Ahsoka Tano is no longer a Jedi - hasn’t been for some time.”

Jesse lowers his blasters a fraction and his voice goes cold.

“Sir, you said it yourself that we are under special order from Darth Sidious to eliminate Ahsoka Tano, and any other clone that disobeys Order 66.”

Rex has never been a good liar, and she doesn’t want this to trip him up. Out of the corner of her eye she spots the droids sneaking their way to their target, a control panel for the lifts used to transport ships across hangar levels. The same lifts that around half of the clone troopers have positioned themselves on.

“Just keep him talking, cyare, a little bit longer,” she whispers to Rex.

“Jesse! Jesse, listen to me! We’ve known each other a long time. If we don’t get this right, we will be the ones committing treason, not her!”

For a moment, Jesse’s grip on his blasters falter, like there might be a small part of him that wants to listen to what Rex is saying. The moment doesn’t last long.

“Commander Rex, you are in violation of Order 66. I accuse you of treason against the Grand Army of the Republic. You are to be demoted from rank of commander and subject to execution, along with the traitor Ahsoka Tano.”

They both knew this was inevitable, but it still feels like a dagger to the chest to hear. There’s no more talking to Jesse. In the distance, one of the droids signals to her.

“Ready?” She asks Rex.

“Yeah,” he sighs. “I didn’t much like being a commander anyways.”

The quip almost makes her smile. She wants to rib something back to him, and fall back into the rhythm of past battles, where they would trade friendship and black humor to make the fights more bearable. But how do you make this bearable? Their friends are quickly aiming their blasters at them, the droids are signaling that the trap is ready, and to waste any more seconds reminiscing would be a death fatal mistake.

“Now!” She yells to Rex and the droids, spurring them into action. Panels of the floor drop away, taking half of the squadron with them out of the fight and into the lower hangar. Jesse just has time to make a shot before Ahsoka pushes him with the force into the lower hangar with the rest. Without taking her eyes off the remaining clones, she pulls her lightsabers back into her hands from Rex’s safekeeping. As Ahsoka draws her sabers to deflect the blaster fire, purpose and destruction rolls across the force and presses on her mind. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees a red and black figure enter the hangar. Maul has found the fight.

Instinctively she knows that his goal is the same as theirs: take the remaining shuttle. Barely tempered anger towards the would-be-Sith burns inside her. She needs that shuttle. He had turned the ship into a wreck, and he can go down with it.

“Rex! The ship!”

Ahsoka leaps with the force over the battle. Rex follows without hesitation, covering her with blaster fire.

Maul snarls as she approaches. Crates and machinery fly towards her.

“You wanted this chaos!”

Anger pierces her chest. She runs towards him, blades swinging. Eyes fixed on his face, she’s unprepared for the sudden push in the force against her chest. Ahsoka flies backwards into the air, unable to stop herself. She hits the ground with speed and continues to fall into the pit to the lower hangar. Her sabers slow her down just enough to catch the line Gee-gee sends towards her as she falls.

Rex and Gee-gee lean over the ledge to pull her up. Below her, half a squadron is starting to stir. Jesse’s voice rises above the chaos.

“Fire on them!”

Ahsoka climbs the chord as fast as she can while dodging blaster fire. Rex pulls her up to stand when, but she has no moment to catch her breath. Maul has the shuttle in the air.

Ahsoka sees red as she runs after it. The Force rushes through her like a storm. Arms raised, she channels it towards the shuttle. The ship groans as it’s engines fight her pull. Something ugly inside her rises up to meet it. Her arms tremble and her feet start to slip as the engines pull away. A hand grips her arm. No! She has to get that shuttle! Cold fear and burning anger mixes with the agonizing cries still ringing ringing ringing through the force. She pulls harder and slips out of his grasp. She could still get it! She could pull it down!

A blaster bolt hits armor.

Rex cries out.

Ice runs through Ahsoka’s body at the sound. What was she doing? Stopping Maul, catching the shuttle, it’s not worth this. It’s not worth losing herself. It’s not worth losing Rex.

She drops her arms without a second thought. Choosing to release Maul may be a mistake, but choosing Rex never is. She’s not getting out of this without him.

Ahsoka dashes towards Rex and places herself in front of him, blades swinging to protect them both from the oncoming blasts. In moments they’re surrounded. Luckily, Ahsoka was trained by some rather creative jedi. She flings down both of her sabers and spins. The floor drops out from under them.

The lower hanger, unfortunately, is also full of clones, blasters raised. Fortunately, they still have the droids. The floor beneath the clones jerks upwards, lifting them back to the upper hangar. The remaining soldiers are easily pushed down with the force.

Rows of Y-wing bombers fill the lower hangar. Most of them are in pieces. But not all. Rex spots it before she does, and together they run towards it.

A blast comes from behind them. The clone troopers she knocked down haven’t stayed down. Rex can’t defend himself from the blasts like she can. Her blades swing with each blast, and as soon as he’s behind her, she shoves. With a startled yell, Rex goes flying towards the ship.

More clones swarm the lower hangar and fire at her. A blast slips by and strikes her arm. More clones. A blast strikes her shin.

A metallic groan echoes through the ship. The ship has entered the atmosphere. Foreign gravity pulls down the crates and unanchored bombers. The clones fall with them. Ahsoka thrusts her sabers into the floor to anchor herself.

“Ahsoka! Come on!”

Rex is in the seat of the Y-wing, helmet off, arms outstretched. The ground tilts even steeper underneath her as she runs towards him. She propels herself forward and leaps.

An explosion in the hangar forces the bomber to break loose from the ship. Rex is pulled away, disappearing into the smoke and debris. Ahsoka is left in freefall.

She knows not to panic. She knows not to feed her fear. Ahsoka knows the force. And Ahsoka knows Rex.

Her mind quiets and her body stills. The force guides her around the falling debris as she centers herself on one thing. A force signature that shines like gold, and radiates warmth like the sun.

It's only moments until they’ve found each other. Together, safe in the Y-Wing, they pull away from the wreckage into safety.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for whoever gave me a kudo last night! Back when I started this I was going through some tough stuff. I'm in a lot better place now, and receiving that kudo reminded me of this fic and how much I wanted to finish it! Thank you for everyone who commented and left kudos, you guys really are awesome. Writing fic has definitely made me appreciate other fic writers a lot more!  
> This won't be the last you hear from me! I've got a ton of fun ideas for Rex and Ahsoka :)


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